Foxconn pays suicidal iPhone engineer family for life

Increased, um, compensation

The life of the Foxconn engineer who committed suicide after misplacing an iPhone 4G prototype was apparently worth more than previously thought.

On Monday, The New York timesreported that the family of 25-year-old Sun Danyong, who jumped from his 12th-floor apartment window after being questioned by Foxconn security about the missing prototype - and allegedly roughed-up - had been paid $44,000 in hush money compensation.

Today, the Associated Press upped the ante, reporting that a "company official" said that the payment to the Sun's parents was "a lump sum of 360,000 yuan ($52,600), plus 30,000 yuan ($4,385) every year as long as either of them remains alive."

The AP made no mention of the Apple laptop that the NYT reported was also given to Sun's ex-girlfriend.

The Foxconn company official cited by the AP "spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to deal with the press."